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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

I'm still going through my D.C. photos, so in the meantime I thought I'd let you know what we did over the holiday weekend.

We started things off with four tickets to a Red Sox game. Hooray for baseball! Double hooray for Red Sox baseball!! Triple hooray for Red Sox baseball at Fenway Park (or, as they say in Boston, Fenway PAHK)!!! Quadruple BOO for torrential rain during a Red Sox game at Fenway Pahk!!!! The game had a delayed start so we putzed around getting dinner and having Emma's face painted.

Emma chose this design by herself. I so love her. I mean, I soLOVE her! Not just because she's cute and adorable and precious and totally perfect in every possible way (I'm a grandma, so I can totally say all of those things about her without sounding obnoxious, or at least without caring if I sound obnoxious, ha ha), but also because she wanted some Boston Red Sox on her face!

Not only did she want some Boston Red Sox on her face, but check out this totally adorable and spontaneous pose she struck for me! I so LOVE her. Sigh.

Of course with the torrential rains came DRENCHED clothes. Our seats were covered, but the walk from our car to Fenway Pahk wasn't. The wind kept our umbrellas from doing much good. Still, we persevered. Giffy and Papa felt so badly for Emma that they bought her a warm, dry sweatshirt (so not shocked that she chose pink) and some cozy dry socks. I'm not sure if we even asked Brittany if she was too wet. Oops. Our bad.

After a few innings, we were all cold. (By we I mean everyone but me. My hot flashes kept me quite warm, thankyouverymuch.) Papa bought two super cozy Red Sox blankets to keep us them warm. The blankets, cotton candy, kettle corn, and warm drinks kept everybody happy. Well, Miss Emma did become rather bored after five innings, so she curled up and read a book.

The next day, Brittany left for New Hampshire to attend a friend's wedding. Miss Emma came to stay at Camp Giffy and Papa. We had to go grocery shopping, so we went to Wegman's. If you've never been to a Wegman's, you simply have not yet lived. It's a serious grocery store, a hip and happenin' grocery store, a grocery store that turns a mundane chore into an exhilarating adventure! Ok, maybe that last part is a wee bit overstated, unless you are Emma. She looks forward to going to Wegman's with her mommy every Saturday. She knew where every single sample station was located. She led Papa from station to station, oohing and aahing over every sample she tried. Needless to say, we went home with every sample Emma tasted sans the hot dog because unless they are kosher and are cooked over an open campfire, hot dogs are totally nasty and disgusting and should never, ever be eaten (especially one at a ballpark which the hot dog hawker yanks out of a steamy box with his bare hands which, by the way, have touched tons of currency passed to him through an endless chain of who-knows-what-nastiness-is-lurking-on-them-hands, and passes it down to the insane purchaser twenty seats away which means that forty-two hands touch the said hot dog before the purchaser ever receives it and OH MY GOSH I would rather lick a toilet seat than eat that hot dog or, now that I've realized that the very thought of licking a toilet seat could cause my demise, at the very least I would rather drink from a public water fountain than eat a non-kosher and non-campfire-roasted hot dog, and this is officially the longest sentence I have ever written)! But I digress. Here's Miss Emma lunching on trail mix (Sample 1), goat and sheep cheese marinated in olive oil and peppercorns (Sample 2), roasted red pepper hummus (Sample 3), and another sheep cheese (Sample 4). I threw some turkey and berries in there to convince her mama that I'd given Emma a well balanced lunch. Cuz I'm all about being well balanced.

We also made a run to Toys R Us. (I tried to flip that R backwards like it appears on the store signage, but Blogger thinks it's smarter than I am and refuses to let me flip it. The sad part is that Blogger probably is smarter than I am, maybe even smarter than a 5th grader, too.) We bought my kids' favorite childhood game: Mouse Trap! It didn't disappoint. Emma loves it as much as they did.

She also got a set of 200 Disney Princess tattoos because apparently one can never have enough Disney Princess tattoos.

Emma can put the tattoos on all by her big girl self. She even convinced Papa to let her put some on him.

Then we snuggled up in our jammies and watched Hotel Transylvania. It was pretty cute. We tucked her into our bed and soon she was fast asleep.

On Sunday, we popped over to Emma's house to check on her kitty, Tulip. Tulip actually lets Emma hold her and carry her around like a baby. It's so cute!

Next, we headed into Boston to explore the Museum of Science. We're nerdy and LOVE the Museum of Science. We have an annual membership because, in addition to Disney Princess tattoos, one simply cannot get enough science.

The museum has a really cool center all about motion and momentum. Emma loves to spin on this wheel. I would totally barf 'cause I'm old. It doesn't bother her one bit.

I love this shot of her hair in motion.

We simply had to go to the Butterfly Room. Who doesn't love butterflies? Actually, Brittany has never loved butterflies. When she was a kid, she totally freaked out whenever one landed upon her. I think she's over the freaking out part by now, but she's still not a fan. Anyway, it's really hot and humid in there, which you'd think would be a good thing on a cold and rainy day. Not so much for a hot flashin' Giffy. Even though I was soppin' wet, I enjoyed the butterflies. Check out these shots. You can see some tiny butterfly legs and antennae.

If you look closely, you'll notice that I caught these beauties drinking nectar.

I don't know what's up with the wings on this little butterfly.

In case you're feeling too warm and fuzzy and the-world-is-one-big-butterfly-garden-ish, here are some HISSING Madagascar cockroaches! These babies are about 3" long. EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!! (Sorry...couldn't resist throwing this one into the mix!) I bet even Brittany prefers the butterflies to the cockroaches.

The museum always offers awesome activities for kids. This time, the challenge was to build a bobsled.

Emma's is the second from your right.

Even the big kids love Boston's Museum of Science.

In his office, Rick dumps coins into a coffee mug, then brings them home and gives them to Emma. This time the loot was $22! She bought this panda bear, whom she named Daffodil, at the museum. Not sure what a panda bear has to do with this particular museum, but she loves it.

As we walked back to the car, we were pleasantly surprised to see the sun! I took this because, a) it had a branch in it LOL and b) I liked the reflections in the mirrored walls of the Prudential building.

Next, we ventured to Boston's North End (aka Little Italy) for a super yummy dinner followed, of course, by dessert at Mike's Pastry.

I'm a bad Giffy. At Mike's Pastry, I let Emma choose a cupcake to have for breakfast the next morning! Don't judge me. After all, a cupcake isn't any worse than a doughnut. Okay, so we rarely eat doughnuts, but this was a sleepover so the normal rules of life don't apply right?

At the Museum of Science, we picked up a cool science kit of 70 experiments to do in a soda bottle. See, Camp Giffy and Papa isn't just about junk food!

The weather was really nice on Monday, so Emma and Papa flew Emma's kite.

Then I taught Emma how to needlepoint. She totally loves it!

Oh, I also introduced Miss Emm to Pop Rocks (a candy that pops and fizzes when it hits your tongue). Ok, so maybe Camp Giffy and Papa is kinda, sorta, maybe about junk food. But to be fair, we also throw in a ton of spoiling, giggling, and over indulging to balance out the junk food 'cause that's how Giffy and Papa roll! (See, I told you that I'm all about being well balanced!)